4 Murders in 3 Days; Deliveryman Shot Down Near Family Home

Dedron McKay

There were four murders between Friday night and Monday morning in San Pedro, Orange Walk, Benque and in Belize City. The carnage started early on Friday night here in the Old Capital where a twenty-year-old delivery man was shot and killed. Dedron McKay was visiting with family when he was gunned down in the yard of his sister, Natasha Tillett, where a gathering was taking place. A grieving Tillett tells News Five’s Duane Moody that no one is safe, not in their yard or their house. Here is that story:

Duane Moody, Reporting

Around eight-thirty p.m., as a group of family and friends gathered to the rear of this house on Haynes Street, a lone gunman would brazenly enter the gates and open fire at an unsuspecting youth. Twenty-year-old Dedron McKay, who was living with a mental disability, was shot to the abdomen and back and died within minutes. The delivery man at Smiling’s Meat Shop had just arrived to visit with his eldest sister, Natasha Tillett and as he was about to leave, he was shot by a gunman who it is believed was about to ambush the group.

Voice of: Natasha Tillett, Sister of Murder Victim

“We were just laughing and talking as usual and my bredda came. He was standing at the back of the house, eating his biscuit as usual. When we finish joke with him, we noh even know when he left, but by the time he spin around from back of the house…as he spin, we just hear pow. And when we hear pow, pow; he run back. But by the time he get the first shot and he run back, dah then dehn hit ahn ina ih back. And when dehn hit ahn ina ih back, he run beside me and he knock beside me and drop in front of me and when he drop, I just see blood di spit out of his mouth.”

Duane Moody

“It was someone from off the street that fire shot at him?”

Voice of: Natasha Tillett

“No the person came in the yard. The gate was open; the person came in the yard.”

Marco Vidal

Sr. Supt. Marco Vidal, Regional Commander, Eastern Division South

“He was along with seven other persons at the time and at some point he decided to move to the front of the property. Upon doing so, he was confronted by an individual who fired several shots at him; a total of seven to eight shots. Mister McKay subsequently died as a result of those injuries.”

Voice of: Natasha Tillett

“We are not safe anywhere. Not safe…not even in our yard, not even in our house; we are not safe anywhere. He came in the yard and my brother was coming out of the yard. My brother just came from off the road from a long day of working.”

After he was shot, the family was unable to get assistance to rush McKay to the hospital so he hemorrhaged in the back yard. By the time police arrived on the scene and whisked him to the K.H.M.H., he was pronounced dead on arrival. The family believes that McKay was not the intended target and that he was simply accosted as the first person the gunman came in contact with inside the Haynes Street property.

Voice of: Natasha Tillett

“When he fell on the ground, blood was just gushing from his mouth; he couldn’t even say anything. And when I looked on his face, he was very, very frightened. Ih noh know weh ketch ahn. And when I see that, I holla my breda get shot up, my breda get shot up. He wasn’t the intended target. It was just mistaken identity; it wasn’t him. He was just coming out the yard and I guess the gunman saw him and just fired shot. He is not a bad person. Everybody loved Dedron, although he is very upstart. But my bredda neva deserve fi die like that. He is a very mentally challenged person.”

Police say, however, that the murder is believed to be retaliatory to the shooting of Cameron Moreira, Godwin Flowers, Darren Dawson and Gerald Tillett. That shooting occurred one week before, on October thirtieth, at Neal’s Pen Road address, two blocks away from the murder scene.

Sr. Supt. Marco Vidal

“Yes, we believe that it is in fact a retaliation to that incident that occurred. So we are seeing it as one of the rivalries.”

Reporter

“Are you guys aware of which groups are feuding? Do you know what the feud is about?”

Sr. Supt. Marco Vidal

“Right. In this particular case because of the ongoing rivalry that exists between these factions, we expect that these people will be going after each other. We know that the last incident involved some players from one of the key gangs and subsequently, we anticipated that there would be some level of retaliation which we eventually saw over the weekend. So yes it is a gang rivalry situation, but we are looking at that.”

Police are looking for one person in connection with this murder. Duane Moody for News Five.

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